New Ulm High School FCCLA members had a week to raise money for the Santa’s Closet donation. 

They have been doing Santa’s Closet every year for the last 42 years or so to raise money to buy presents for children in need. 

In 2020, over $4,000 was raised, but since then, they haven’t made as much. But to encourage the staff and students to donate, they hold prizes like: 1st place gets a pizza party, 2nd place gets root beer floats, and 3rd place gets cookies. This year, they raised a little over $2,400.

On Friday, Dec. 12, FCCLA students went to Walmart to buy presents with the money that was donated. They split into 4 groups of 4, with around $600 per group to spend, during the first couple of hours of the school day, shopping. They bought anything from stocking stuffers to Play-Doh to Hot Wheels tracks and American Girl dolls.

After all were done shopping and all was bought, the toys were packed onto the bus and brought over to New Ulm’s new National Guard Armory. Where they met up with others to sort the toys.

Shannon, who works for Bank Midwest, oversees all and helps with this organization. She gave out the blue stickers and red stickers for the assortment of the toys.

“Blue stickers are for large toys that are $30-$40,” FCCLA Advisor Ms. Schneider said. “Red stickers are for medium toys $20-$30. We are told to avoid buying games, stuffed animals, or clothes, as families do not choose those things over the toys.”

The next day, Saturday, families who signed up for this program could start showing up around 8 a.m. to get in line to pick out toys for their children. They are given a number and have to wait for their number to be called before they can walk through. Each parent who signed up was able to pick out two to three toys for each of their children, one toy each from the small, medium, and large assortment of toys.

FCCLA has been around since 1945 and is a national organization with over 5,400 chapters throughout 47 states. FCCLA stands for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, formally called Future Homemakers of America (FHA). The name was changed in 1999 to better reflect the focus on leadership and career preparation beyond traditional homemaking.

This year, New Ulm High School’s FCCLA chapter has 38 total active members, with this being Family and Consumer Science teacher Ms. Schneider’s first year as the Chapter’s Advisor after Mr. Janssen was the advisor for the last 6 years. 

“Whenever I’m explaining FCCLA to somebody, it’s like FFA, but not the farmers’ aspect of it. It’s the community aspect of it. So we do a lot more stuff with the community,” Ms. Schneider said.

“If somebody is looking for volunteers, FCCLA helps,” Schneider said. “Like with the Optimist Club, they do Adopt a Family Program where gifts are bought for everyone in the family, not just the children. FCCLA helps with that.”

FCCLA helps anywhere where they need help that deals within the Chamber or Brown County, and the community. “Whenever the Humane Society is looking for volunteers, FCCLA helps with that as well,” Schneider said.

Students can join FCCLA anytime throughout their high school years. Going into joining FCCLA, you want a goal in mind of leadership skills,  growth, and development. It is a fun organization to join to help our community.